Beverage preferences and associated drinking patterns, consequences and other substance use behaviours.

BACKGROUND: Studies about beverage preferences in a country in which wine drinking is relatively widespread (like Switzerland) are scarce. Therefore, the main aims of the present study were to examine the associations between beverage preferences and drinking patterns, alcohol-related consequences and the use of other substances among Swiss young men. METHODS: The analytical sample consisted of 5399 Swiss men who participated in the Cohort Study on Substance Use Risk Factors (C-SURF) and had been drinking alcohol over the preceding 12 months. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to study the associations between preference for a particular beverage and (i) drinking patterns, (ii) negative alcohol-related consequences and (iii) the (at-risk) use of cigarettes, cannabis and other illicit drugs. RESULTS: Preference for beer was associated with risky drinking patterns and, comparable with a preference for strong alcohol, with the use of illicit substances (cannabis and other illicit drugs). In contrast, a preference for wine was associated with low-risk alcohol consumption and a reduced likelihood of experiencing at least four negative alcohol-related consequences or of daily cigarette smoking. Furthermore, the likelihood of negative outcomes (alcohol-related consequences; use of other substances) increased among people with risky drinking behaviours, independent of beverage preference. CONCLUSIONS: In our survey, beer preference was associated with risky drinking patterns and illicit drug use. Alcohol polices to prevent large quantities of alcohol consumption, especially of cheaper spirits like beer, should be considered to reduce total alcohol consumption and the negative consequences associated with these beverage types.

Experimental plant communities develop phylogenetically overdispersed abundance distributions during assembly

The importance of competition between similar species in driving community assembly is much debated. Recently, phylogenetic patterns in species composition have been investigated to help resolve this question: phylogenetic clustering is taken to imply environmental filtering, and phylogenetic overdispersion to indicate limiting similarity between species. We used experimental plant communities with random species compositions and initially even abundance distributions to examine the development of phylogenetic pattern in species abundance distributions. Where composition was held constant by weeding, abundance distributions became overdispersed through time, but only in communities that contained distantly related clades, some with several species (i.e., a mix of closely and distantly related species). Phylogenetic pattern in composition therefore constrained the development of overdispersed abundance distributions, and this might indicate limiting similarity between close relatives and facilitation/complementarity between distant relatives. Comparing the phylogenetic patterns in these communities with those expected from the monoculture abundances of the constituent species revealed that interspecific competition caused the phylogenetic patterns. Opening experimental communities to colonization by all species in the species pool led to convergence in phylogenetic diversity. At convergence, communities were composed of several distantly related but species-rich clades and had overdispersed abundance distributions. This suggests that limiting similarity processes determine which species dominate a community but not which species occur in a community. Crucially, as our study was carried out in experimental communities, we could rule out local evolutionary or dispersal explanations for the patterns and identify ecological processes as the driving force, underlining the advantages of studying these processes in experimental communities. Our results show that phylogenetic relations between species provide a good guide to understanding community structure and add a new perspective to the evidence that niche complementarity is critical in driving community assembly.

Androgen and gonadotropin patterns differ in HIV-1-infected men who develop lipoatrophy during antiretroviral therapy: a case-control study.

OBJECTIVES: We compared androgen and gonadotropin values in HIV-infected men who did and did not develop lipoatrophy on combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). METHODS: From a population of 136 treatment-naïve male Caucasians under successful zidovudine/lamivudine-based cART, the 10 patients developing lipoatrophy (cases) were compared with 87 randomly chosen controls. Plasma levels of free testosterone (fT), dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), follicle-stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone (LH) were measured at baseline and after 2 years of cART. RESULTS: At baseline, 60% of the cases and 71% of the controls showed abnormally low fT values. LH levels were normal or low in 67 and 94% of the patients, respectively, indicating a disturbance of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. fT levels did not significantly change after 2 years of cART. Cases showed a significant increase in LH levels, while controls showed a significant increase in DHEA levels. In a multivariate logistic regression model, lipoatrophy was associated with higher baseline DHEA levels (P=0.04), an increase in LH levels during cART (P=0.001), a lower body mass index and greater age. CONCLUSIONS: Hypogonadism is present in the majority of HIV-infected patients. The development of cART-related lipoatrophy is associated with an increase in LH and a lack of increase in DHEA levels.

Age-associated modulations of cerebral oscillatory patterns related to attention control.

Visual attention depends on bottom-up sensory activation and top-down attentional guidance. Although aging is known to affect sensory processing, its impact on the top-down control of attention remains a matter of debate. We investigated age-related modulations of brain oscillatory activity during visual attention using a variant of the attention network test (ANT) in 20 young and 28 elderly adults. We examined the EEG oscillatory responses to warning and target signals, and explored the correlates of temporal and spatial orienting as well as conflict resolution at target presentation. Time-frequency analysis was performed between 4 and 30Hz, and the relationship between behavioral and brain oscillatory responses was analyzed. Whereas temporal cueing and conflict had similar reaction time effects in both age groups, spatial cueing was more beneficial to older than younger subjects. In the absence of cue, posterior alpha activation was drastically reduced in older adults, pointing to an age-related decline in anticipatory attention. Following both cues and targets, older adults displayed pronounced motor-related activation in the low beta frequency range at the expense of attention-related posterior alpha activation prominent in younger adults. These findings support the recruitment of alternative motor-related circuits in the elderly, in line with the dedifferentiation hypothesis. Furthermore, older adults showed reduced midparietal alpha inhibition induced by temporal orienting as well as decreased posterior alpha activation associated with both spatial orienting and conflict resolution. Altogether, the results are consistent with an overall reduction of task-related alpha activity in the elderly, and provide functional evidence that younger and older adults engage distinct brain circuits at different oscillatory frequencies during attentional functions.

Evolutionary patterns of MHC class II B in owls and their implications for the understanding of avian MHC evolution

Owing to its special mode of evolution and central role in the adaptive immune system, the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) has become the focus of diverse disciplines such as immunology, evolutionary ecology, and molecular evolution. MHC evolution has been studied extensively in diverse vertebrate lineages over the last few decades, and it has been suggested that birds differ from the established mammalian norm. Mammalian MHC genes evolve independently, and duplication history (i.e., orthology) can usually be traced back within lineages. In birds, this has been observed in only 3 pairs of closely related species. Here we report strong evidence for the persistence of orthology of MHC genes throughout an entire avian order. Phylogenetic reconstructions of MHC class II B genes in 14 species of owls trace back orthology over tens of thousands of years in exon 3. Moreover, exon 2 sequences from several species show closer relationships than sequences within species, resembling transspecies evolution typically observed in mammals. Thus, although previous studies suggested that long-term evolutionary dynamics of the avian MHC was characterized by high rates of concerted evolution, resulting in rapid masking of orthology, our results question the generality of this conclusion. The owl MHC thus opens new perspectives for a more comprehensive understanding of avian MHC evolution.

Cardiovascular patterns associated with appetitive and defensive activation during affective picture viewing

Descriptors: cardiovascular patterns, emotion, affective pictures In this study we assessed blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), stroke volume (SV), cardiac output (CO), and total peripheral resistance (TPR) in response to 13 picture series in 18 men and 19 women in order to investigate their hemodynamic responses associated with activation of the appetitive and defensive motivational systems underlying emotional experience. Skin conductance level (SCL) was also recorded. BP and SV increased with increasing self-rated arousal both for appetitive and defensive activation, whereas HR decelerated more in response to negative than positive and neutral pictures. TPR showed a general increase from baseline to picture processing but was unrelated to self-rated valence and arousal. These findings suggest that affective modulation of the cardiovascular response to affective pictures is primarily myocardial. The observed response pattern is consistent with a configuration of cardiac sympathetic-parasympathetic coactivation. The relationships between self-reported arousal, BP and SV were mainly exhibited by men suggesting that increases in the sympathetic inotropic effect to the heart with increasing self-rated arousal might be larger in men than in women. In contrast, SCL covaried positively with self-rated arousal both in men and women. This suggests that sex differences in the affective modulation of the responses to pictures may be restricted to specific cardiovascular parameters and support the contention that the sympathetic nervous system does not discharge as a whole.

Market rewards to patterns on increasing earnings: do cash flow patterns, accruals manipulation and real activities manipulation matter?

This study explores whether firms have differential price-earnings multiples associated with their means of achieving a sequential pattern of increasing positive earnings. Our main findings show that market participants assign higher price-earnings multiples to firms when their pattern of increasing earnings is supported by the same pattern of increasing cash flows. Market participants assign lower price-earnings multiples to firms suspect of having engaged in accrual-based earnings management, sales manipulation, and overproduction to achieve the earnings pattern. We find, however, that market participants do not penalize firms suspect of having achieved the earnings pattern through the opportunistic reduction of discretionary expenses.

An analysis of the metabolic patterns of two rural communities affected by soy expansion in the North of Argentina

The soy expansion model in Argentina generates structural changes in traditional lifestyles that can be associated with different biophysical and socioeconomic impacts. To explore this issue, we apply an innovative method for integrated assessment - the Multi Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) framework - to characterize two communities in the Chaco Region, Province of Formosa, North of Argentina. These communities have recently experienced the expansion of soy production, altering their economic activity, energy consumption patterns, land use, and human time allocation. The integrated characterization presented in the paper illustrates the differences (biophysical, socioeconomic, and historical) between the two communities that can be associated with different responses. The analysis of the factors behind these differences has important policy implications for the sustainable development of local communities in the area.

Consultation d'urgence/crise pour couples et families: motifs d'urgence et évaluation du traitement [Couples and families emergency/crisis consultation: emergency patterns and treatment assessment]

Since the opening in 2003 of the Couple & Family Consultation Unit (UCCF) at Prangins Hospital, we have met urgent demands and observed that the suffering systems (i.e., couples and families) couldn't face any waiting period. So in 2007 an Emergency/Crisis Facility was created, based on the hypothesis that there is no contra-indication to systemic emergency care, if one understands and structures both crisis and treatment. We studied the suffering population in demand and the emergency/crisis issues and assessed therapy efficiency. Then we observed that treating suffering systems in emergency does produce therapeutic gain in terms of crisis resolution and patients' satisfaction. Those treatments refer to public health issues, as considered the human, social and financial cost of couples/families dysfunctions.

Evolutionary history and its relevance in understanding and conserving southern African biodiversity

Abstract : Understanding how biodiversity is distributed is central to any conservation effort and has traditionally been based on niche modeling and the causal relationship between spatial distribution of organisms and their environment. More recently, the study of species' evolutionary history and relatedness has permeated the fields of ecology and conservation and, coupled with spatial predictions, provides useful insights to the origin of current biodiversity patterns, community structuring and potential vulnerability to extinction. This thesis explores several key ecological questions by combining the fields of niche modeling and phylogenetics and using important components of southern African biodiversity. The aims of this thesis are to provide comparisons of biodiversity measures, to assess how climate change will affect evolutionary history loss, to ask whether there is a clear link between evolutionary history and morphology and to investigate the potential role of relatedness in macro-climatic niche structuring. The first part of my thesis provides a fine scale comparison and spatial overlap quantification of species richness and phylogenetic diversity predictions for one of the most diverse plant families in the Cape Floristic Region (CFR), the Proteaceae. In several of the measures used, patterns do not match sufficiently to argue that species relatedness information is implicit in species richness patterns. The second part of my thesis predicts how climate change may affect threat and potential extinction of southern African animal and plant taxa. I compare present and future niche models to assess whether predicted species extinction will result in higher or lower V phylogenetic diversity survival than what would be experienced under random extinction processes. l find that predicted extinction will result in lower phylogenetic diversity survival but that this non-random pattern will be detected only after a substantial proportion of the taxa in each group has been lost. The third part of my thesis explores the relationship between phylogenetic and morphological distance in southern African bats to assess whether long evolutionary histories correspond to equally high levels of morphological variation, as predicted by a neutral model of character evolution. I find no such evidence; on the contrary weak negative trends are detected for this group, as well as in simulations of both neutral and convergent character evolution. Finally, I ask whether spatial and climatic niche occupancy in southern African bats is influenced by evolutionary history or not. I relate divergence time between species pairs to climatic niche and range overlap and find no evidence for clear phylogenetic structuring. I argue that this may be due to particularly high levels of micro-niche partitioning. Résumé : Comprendre la distribution de la biodiversité représente un enjeu majeur pour la conservation de la nature. Les analyses se basent le plus souvent sur la modélisation de la niche écologique à travers l'étude des relations causales entre la distribution spatiale des organismes et leur environnement. Depuis peu, l'étude de l'histoire évolutive des organismes est également utilisée dans les domaines de l'écologie et de la conservation. En combinaison avec la modélisation de la distribution spatiale des organismes, cette nouvelle approche fournit des informations pertinentes pour mieux comprendre l'origine des patterns de biodiversité actuels, de la structuration des communautés et des risques potentiels d'extinction. Cette thèse explore plusieurs grandes questions écologiques, en combinant les domaines de la modélisation de la niche et de la phylogénétique. Elle s'applique aux composants importants de la biodiversité de l'Afrique australe. Les objectifs de cette thèse ont été l) de comparer différentes mesures de la biodiversité, 2) d'évaluer l'impact des changements climatiques à venir sur la perte de diversité phylogénétique, 3) d'analyser le lien potentiel entre diversité phylogénétique et diversité morphologique et 4) d'étudier le rôle potentiel de la phylogénie sur la structuration des niches macro-climatiques des espèces. La première partie de cette thèse fournit une comparaison spatiale, et une quantification du chevauchement, entre des prévisions de richesse spécifique et des prédictions de la diversité phylogénétique pour l'une des familles de plantes les plus riches en espèces de la région floristique du Cap (CFR), les Proteaceae. Il résulte des analyses que plusieurs mesures de diversité phylogénétique montraient des distributions spatiales différentes de la richesse spécifique, habituellement utilisée pour édicter des mesures de conservation. La deuxième partie évalue les effets potentiels des changements climatiques attendus sur les taux d'extinction d'animaux et de plantes de l'Afrique australe. Pour cela, des modèles de distribution d'espèces actuels et futurs ont permis de déterminer si l'extinction des espèces se traduira par une plus grande ou une plus petite perte de diversité phylogénétique en comparaison à un processus d'extinction aléatoire. Les résultats ont effectivement montré que l'extinction des espèces liées aux changements climatiques pourrait entraîner une perte plus grande de diversité phylogénétique. Cependant, cette perte ne serait plus grande que celle liée à un processus d'extinction aléatoire qu'à partir d'une forte perte de taxons dans chaque groupe. La troisième partie de cette thèse explore la relation entre distances phylogénétiques et morphologiques d'espèces de chauves-souris de l'Afrique australe. ll s'agit plus précisément de déterminer si une longue histoire évolutive correspond également à des variations morphologiques plus grandes dans ce groupe. Cette relation est en fait prédite par un modèle neutre d'évolution de caractères. Aucune évidence de cette relation n'a émergé des analyses. Au contraire, des tendances négatives ont été détectées, ce qui représenterait la conséquence d'une évolution convergente entre clades et des niveaux élevés de cloisonnement pour chaque clade. Enfin, la dernière partie présente une étude sur la répartition de la niche climatique des chauves-souris de l'Afrique australe. Dans cette étude je rapporte temps de divergence évolutive (ou deux espèces ont divergé depuis un ancêtre commun) au niveau de chevauchement de leurs niches climatiques. Les résultats n'ont pas pu mettre en évidence de lien entre ces deux paramètres. Les résultats soutiennent plutôt l'idée que cela pourrait être I dû à des niveaux particulièrement élevés de répartition de la niche à échelle fine.

A comparison of random sequence reads versus 16S rDNA sequences for estimating the biodiversity of a metagenomic library

The construction of metagenomic libraries has permitted the study of microorganisms resistant to isolation and the analysis of 16S rDNA sequences has been used for over two decades to examine bacterial biodiversity. Here, we show that the analysis of random sequence reads (RSRs) instead of 16S is a suitable shortcut to estimate the biodiversity of a bacterial community from metagenomic libraries. We generated 10,010 RSRs from a metagenomic library of microorganisms found in human faecal samples. Then searched them using the program BLASTN against a prokaryotic sequence database to assign a taxon to each RSR. The results were compared with those obtained by screening and analysing the clones containing 16S rDNA sequences in the whole library. We found that the biodiversity observed by RSR analysis is consistent with that obtained by 16S rDNA. We also show that RSRs are suitable to compare the biodiversity between different metagenomic libraries. RSRs can thus provide a good estimate of the biodiversity of a metagenomic library and, as an alternative to 16S, this approach is both faster and cheaper.

Iowa Commuting Patterns, 2000

A century ago, the majority of workers were employed near their homes—on farms or in cities and towns. As industrialization increased and suburbs surrounded central cities, commuting meant going from homes in suburbs to jobs in cities. Today, there is a growing trend of workers commuting between suburbs. On any given day, 61,775 workers commute to jobs in Iowa counties other than the one in which they live. The most important reason for increased commuting has been employment growth. Rising incomes and the growth of suburbs have also been factors. In the past, the increased employment of women added to the number of commuters. Commuting patterns are a key consideration in transportation planning. In more urban states than Iowa, there is concern that the use of mass transit continues to decline. In Iowa, where so much of our commuting is between counties, private vehicles are often the only practical means of getting to and from work. On any given day, 1,155,008 single-occupancy vehicles are driven to and from jobs somewhere in Iowa. At the same time, an additional158,699 workers share rides by participating in carpools.

Climatic extremes improve predictions of spatial patterns of tree species.

Understanding niche evolution, dynamics, and the response of species to climate change requires knowledge of the determinants of the environmental niche and species range limits. Mean values of climatic variables are often used in such analyses. In contrast, the increasing frequency of climate extremes suggests the importance of understanding their additional influence on range limits. Here, we assess how measures representing climate extremes (i.e., interannual variability in climate parameters) explain and predict spatial patterns of 11 tree species in Switzerland. We find clear, although comparably small, improvement (+20% in adjusted D(2), +8% and +3% in cross-validated True Skill Statistic and area under the receiver operating characteristics curve values) in models that use measures of extremes in addition to means. The primary effect of including information on climate extremes is a correction of local overprediction and underprediction. Our results demonstrate that measures of climate extremes are important for understanding the climatic limits of tree species and assessing species niche characteristics. The inclusion of climate variability likely will improve models of species range limits under future conditions, where changes in mean climate and increased variability are expected.

Patterns of evolutionary constraints on genes in humans

Background: Different regions in a genome evolve at different rates depending on structural and functional constraints. Some genomic regions are highly conserved during metazoan evolution, while other regions may evolve rapidly, either in all species or in a lineage-specific manner. A strong or even moderate change in constraints in functional regions, for example in coding regions, can have significant evolutionary consequences. Results: Here we discuss a novel framework, 'BaseDiver', to classify groups of genes in humans based on the patterns of evolutionary constraints on polymorphic positions in their coding regions. Comparing the nucleotide-level divergence among mammals with the extent of deviation from the ancestral base in the human lineage, we identify patterns of evolutionary pressure on nonsynonymous base-positions in groups of genes belonging to the same functional category. Focussing on groups of genes in functional categories, we find that transcription factors contain a significant excess of nonsynonymous base-positions that are conserved in other mammals but changed in human, while immunity related genes harbour mutations at base-positions that evolve rapidly in all mammals including humans due to strong preference for advantageous alleles. Genes involved in olfaction also evolve rapidly in all mammals, and in humans this appears to be due to weak negative selection. Conclusion: While recent studies have identified genes under positive selection in humans, our approach identifies evolutionary constraints on Gene Ontology groups identifying changes in humans relative to some of the other mammals.

Collage, a Collaborative Learning Design Editor Based on Patterns

This paper introduces Collage, a high-level IMS-LD compliant authoring tool that is specialized for CSCL (Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning). Nowadays CSCL is a key trend in elearning since it highlights the importance of social interactions as an essential element of learning. CSCL is an interdisciplinary domain, which demands participatory design techniques that allow teachers to get directly involved in design activities. Developing CSCL designs using LD is a difficult task for teachers since LD is a complex technical specification and modelling collaborative characteristics can be tricky. Collage helps teachers in the process of creating their own potentially effective collaborative Learning Designs by reusing and customizing patterns, according to the requirements of a particular learning situation. These patterns, called Collaborative Learning Flow Patterns (CLFPs), represent best practices that are repetitively used by practitioners when structuring the flow of (collaborative) learning activities. An example of an LD that can be created using Collage is illustrated in the paper. Preliminary evaluation results show that teachers, with experience in CL but without LD knowledge, can successfully design real collaborative learning experiences using Collage.